Friday, November 8, 2013

Roberta Gonzales will be moving from the weekend weather duties, (and KPIX pretentious "mobile weather lab") to the weekday mornings, according to a reliable broadcast source.

The move, which is supposed to take place "in about a month" will see the enormously popular Gonzales work with current weatherman, Lawrence Karnow. If that sounds awkward it should be, but reading between the lines, looks as if PIX wants to hit weather very hard and therefore, getting Gonzales back to give the mornings a jolt will accomplish that on a number of fronts.

As to how Karnow will react to all this is anyone's guess but my source indicated Gonzales feels a bit uneasy moving into his territory. In addition, the new move is not the only one on the horizon. Look for some more changes coming.

He went too far yesterday with his elitist, misogynistic rant. He might be the most prepared sports radio jock and this might just be a grandstanding ploy for pub but he needs to be suspended for awhile or fired.

You are so right. Roberta is a ZERO. She is a shameful self promoter. Whilecovering the recent womens' marathon, she had to interject that she ran in the first one. No one cares Roberta!! Have another cocktail amateur!

I posted a couple of Radnich topics on my blog...but one I give to you because it fits what your blog had said a few days ago: Larry Kreuger came back to Radnich over Raddy's sanctimonious disappearance during the paid for Gambling segments on Fridays. "You don't complain on the 1st and 15th of the month."Good point Larry. Radnich is so against gambling he wont talk to Adam Meyers...but Radnich does take his share of the Bonus money he gets from Meyers segment. Money off the back of fellow Mormons gone astray?Kreuger many times seems he's about had it up to here...good for him.

Gee, Rich, surprised you're not talking about "media saturation" with the coverage of the stupid Twitter IPO. I'd be with you on that one. The Twitter stock isn't going to improve the lives of anybody except the early execs who already cashed out--the fact that they already cashed out should speak volumes and make everyone else zip their wallets, but of course it won't. Yet the talking heads on all the stations are barking like the Twitter IPO was real news that affected real people. Ed Lee took a stroll down the street. Too bad the asshole never walks where there are potholes or crumbling infrastructure. He's counting in the mere presence of Twitter to up the city's profile? How's it going to do that when it pays no taxes and gets its building rent-free for ten years, as do the rest of the techs? Instead of waiting for the pixie dust of profitability to come for these companies, which will never happen, why not just lift up the city's profile yourself, with real, shovel-ready jobs? Because that's work, while waiting for this magic internet breakthrough, like waiting for The Great Pumpkin, is easier and cheaper, and keeps getting you reelected anyway, so why bother really *doing* something?

"the enormously popular Gonzales..."Do you have anything to support this supposed popularity other than your own opinion? Surveys? Audience Research? Most people I know dislike Gonzo's on-air antics, which seem to be more about promoting herself than reporting the damn weather. A larger question might by why a station invest so much in weather in an area that rarely has significant weather problems.

> Do you have anything to support this supposed popularity other than > your own opinion? Surveys? Audience Research?

The size of her hooters. (Roberta's at least a C cup, and probably a D.)

> A larger question might by why a station invest so much in weather in an> area that rarely has significant weather problems.

Weather is cheap to cover and fills up a lot of air time. If a station breaks for weather three times in a half hour, which most of them do now, that's about a five or six minute hole that's filled with ad libs and satellite images of swirling clouds.They thus can, and have, laid off writers and editors because of that hole that is now filled. Notice they don't expand sports. Sports is very labor-intensive, requiring lots of producers and editors to cut whole games into coherent highlights, etc. So sports' window keeps shrinking.

For the same reason they love traffic reports in the morning. A monkey (albeit often a telegenic one) with a headset can fill time with repetitive and obvious blather ("Oh, stay off the Bay Bridge if you can. It's backed up far into the maze!") and that means they don't have to employ as many people who actually gather news--writers, editors, desk assistants. They are seen as liabilities in corporate America, and especially at TV stations, where owners still expect a 40-percent-after-taxes profit level in this internet age. They don't want to accept that it's not just three networks and four UHF channels anymore, and this isn't 1970.

The fog and frequently fluctuating microclimates may have something to do with that. Freezing and below freezing conditions at night in the middle of winter, and 100+ temps during some warm weather months, are not unusual in certain parts of the region. Perhaps those situations are not as extreme as one would find in many parts of the country, but they are noteworthy nonetheless.

@5:01 In the bay area, most people just want to know if they need to take an umbrella or a jacket with them when they walk out the door. I don't need two weather people to tell me if it's going to rain. Although the local stations like to treat a little wind and rain like the storm of the century, we don't have heavy snow, or twisters, or hurricanes and the heat waves last two or three weeks out of the year at most, so there's no need to focus so much attention on the weather here.

They ship a dummy back and forth from station to station, the same way they share traffic copters now, yes. They put on a different wig and some elastic skin, change the suit, and insert a new voice synthesizer manufactured by Apple. (One night KPIX had a goof on air and Deano started talking in Siri's voice.) Rumor has it when Jan Wahl used to appear on KRON, they'd take the Darya robot, press a button that lets out bladders to puff up the face and body, and put on a gray wig and a hat. The voice was pretty much the same.

Remember when KRON used to have two weather anchors in the morning? Its not the first time this has been done, but even then, with Evelyn Taft, the needle didn't move. That said, the news has not been appointment television for years now. I don't know anyone who actually turns on the news to watch anymore. We're all connected via smartphone and laptops to get information on demand. Furthermore, not many people care that a low pressure system out of the Gulf of Alaska will impact their weekend. While Mr Karnow does a fantastic job explaining the science behind our current weather, people don't want to wait 3 minutes to see the forecast. They want to see a number (temp) and an icon to let them know sun, clouds or rain. Don't need a human, let alone two, to explain.

They can hit it all they want, but it will still be the usual, predictable stuff 95% of the year. Other than a couple of heavy storms in the winter and a couple of short heatwaves in the summer, all I need to know is what month it is, then look out the window or check the fog bank status on the Lawrence Berkeley webcam to know all the weather news I need for the day. Have the corporate suits dictated that every TV station in the country has to ramp up its weather coverage to constant Tornado Alley defcon-one mode regardless of how benign the local climate is?

Forecasting the weather in the SF Bay Area most of the year is pretty simple.. "Low clouds and fog along the coast, extending inland nights and mornings. Highs from the upper 50's right along the coast to the 80's and 90's well inland. Afternoon west to northwest winds 10-15 miles per hour including the Suisun Bay and west Delta..."

Someone mention Brian Sussman's new interest in the Christian Religion. Perhaps this is the new path Sussman is taking:http://www.jewishjournal.com/bloggish/item/george_w._bush_to_speak_to_messianic_jewish_group_why

Thanks, 2:21. Having no knowledge of tv production mechanics, I've often wondered why so many weather spots and why the sports segments have been so reduced. As for Roberta, can't stand her self-promotions, poses and kitten speech. I don't want a meteorology lesson several times during each broadcast - just the basics, please. Now that Roberta is being removed from the weekend weather, I don't have to keep a tight grip on my remote anymore. I always figured, by the way, that the portable weather contraption was her bright idea to gain more air time. Ugh, what an awful and unattractive woman she is. I was shocked to read Rich's description of her as being much admired.

What is the reason for this any way. Why do they need to do this. I know there is alot of people that like and say Roberta hot and is brain and beauty. I'm also one of them, since she was at KPIX in the late mid 90s. Is that dam news director trying to get Roberta to say she leaving KPIX and looking else where by doing this. IF he is what a sad thing, so he don't have to fire her and be the bad person. I'll say this either way still he done a very very very bad thing and making the viwers not happy.